Antique Roman Empire Headstone Uncovered in New Orleans Yard Deposited by US Soldier's Descendant
The historic Roman grave marker newly found in a garden in New Orleans seems to have been passed down and placed there by the female descendant of a American serviceman who served in Italy throughout the global conflict.
Through comments that nearly unraveled an international historical mystery, the granddaughter informed local media outlets that her grandpa, her grandfather, kept the historic relic in a display case at his residence in New Orleans’ Gentilly district until he died in 1986.
She explained she was not sure exactly how the soldier came to possess an item listed as lost from an Rome-area institution near Rome that had destroyed the majority of its artifacts because of wartime air raids. However her grandfather was stationed in Italy with the American military throughout the conflict, tied the knot with Adele there, and went back to New Orleans to build a profession as a vocal coach, the descendant explained.
It was also not uncommon for military personnel who fought in Europe throughout the global conflict to bring back souvenirs.
“I just thought it was a piece of art,” the granddaughter remarked. “I had no idea it was a 2,000-year-old … relic.”
Regardless, what she first believed was a plain marble piece ended up being passed down to her after the veteran’s demise, and she set it as a yard ornament in the rear area of a house she acquired in the city’s Carrollton neighborhood in 2003. O’Brien forgot to retrieve the item with her when she moved out in 2018 to a pair who uncovered the stone in March while cleaning up undergrowth.
The pair – scholar Daniella Santoro of the university and her husband, the co-owner – realized the artifact had an writing in ancient Latin. They contacted scholars who established the object was a headstone dedicated to a circa 2nd-century Roman seafarer and soldier named Sextus Congenius Verus.
Moreover, the researchers discovered, the headstone matched the account of one reported missing from the city museum of Civitavecchia, Italy, near where it had first discovered, as one of the consulting academics – the local university specialist Dr. Gray – explained in a column published online earlier this week.
The couple have since turned the headstone over to the federal investigators, and efforts to send back the artifact to the Italian museum are in progress so that museum can show appropriately it.
The granddaughter, living in the New Orleans community of nearby town, said she remembered her ancestor’s curious relic again after the publication had received coverage from the international news media. She said she reached out to journalists after a phone call from her former spouse, who informed her that he had read a article about the artifact that her grandpa had once owned – and that it in fact proved to be a item from one of the planet’s ancient cultures.
“It left us completely stunned,” the granddaughter expressed. “It’s astonishing how this all happened.”
Dr. Gray, for his part, said it was a comfort to find out how the Roman sailor’s tombstone traveled behind a home more than thousands of miles away from the Italian city.
“I expected we would compile a list of potential individuals connected to its journey,” Gray said. “I didn’t anticipate discovering the exact heir – making it exhilarating to uncover the truth.”
